Some of the most significant and iconic paintings in the world hang permanently on the walls of the Art Gallery of NSW in the 13 old courts. These elegant rooms were the very first rooms of the Gallery to be built in 1897 in typically grand Victorian style and scale.

The Grand Courts house Sydney’s premier collections of both European art, from the Renaissance to Impressionism, and Australian art, from colonisation to the end of the 19th century. They are home to works by Rubens, Van Gogh, Monet, Pissarro, Cézanne, Hogarth, Delacroix, Leighton, Constable and Gainsborough and those of Australian artists such as Roberts, Streeton, Lambert, McCubbin, Bunny, Phillips Fox, Gruner and Ashton.

The Grand Courts have now gone through a major refurbishment. Discover some of the innovative recent changes, including the installation of significant masterpieces of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art as well as an expanded exhibit of 19th-century sculpture and some fine works that have not been on display for many years.

Grand Courts of the Art Gallery of NSW. Photo: Jenni Carter